Diesel Brothers star David “Heavy D” Sparks was arrested after a judge found him in contempt for failing to pay nearly $850,000 in fines.
In a court order filed October 2 and seen by The Independent, a Utah judge commanded the arrest and incarceration of Sparks, who fronted the Discovery Channel’s eight-season reality series, for “repeatedly and willfully” ignoring court orders to pay $843,602.23 in fines related to alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, a federal air pollution law.
He was booked in Salt Lake County jail on Tuesday but has since been released from federal custody, per TMZ.
Sparks agreed to provide certain information within 10 days of Thursday’s hearing to the plaintiffs, the Utah Physicians for a Wealthy Environment, an organization committed to the protection of all Utah residents through the promotion of progressive improvements to the environment, the publication reported.
The reality star’s lawyer, Cole Cannon, told Entertainment Weekly after his release that “no crime was charged or alleged.” Cannon added, “This arrest should never have occurred in the first place and it has been a grave injustice to the Sparks family.”
The Independent has reached out to Sparks and his lawyer for comment.
Sparks, also known for filming YouTube vlogs with his Diesel Brothers co-star, David “Diesel Dave” Kiley, was first sued in 2017 for allegedly modifying his vehicles’ exhaust systems to produce black smoke, a toxic pollutant.
He was later fined $843,602.23 in March 2020 after it was discovered that he had violated the Clean Air Act more than 400 times.
“Over three years later, after Defendants had failed to pay any amount to Plaintiff under the Fees Order, the court found all Defendants in contempt on June 24, 2024 for their noncompliance,” the documents read.
The following January, the judge entered a second order seeking to enforce the first. The order required Sparks to produce various documents and information to the plaintiff, including numerous business operating agreements and pictures of all “on- and off-road vehicles, trailers, motorcycles, watercraft and aircraft in which any Defendant has a financial interest.”
In August, Sparks was found to have violated four of the court’s orders, including failing to pay fines and submit required documents.
The recent filing states that Sparks may purge or resolve the contempt order, either by paying the full $843,602.23 fine or by making a series of filings to settle some of the issues listed in the second enforcement order.
Diesel Brothers, which aired on the Discovery Channel from 2016 to 2022, followed Sparks and Kiley as they purchased diesel trucks headed to the dump and repurposed and modified them for use in elaborate pranks and stunts.
Sparks addressed the ongoing lawsuit in a YouTube video uploaded August 6, describing it as “an absolute nightmare.”
“There’s a lot of things about the lawsuit that I don't feel are fair,” he said. “And there’s a lot of things with the lawsuit that we deserve because we made some mistakes in the early days of our business by, you know, deleting trucks and having, you know, smoky trucks and stuff like that. And that’s stuff that I’m not proud of.”
